Enjoying the simple things in life

Zippers

I am determined to conquer them on simple projects before using them in clothing.

So, using my trusty School of Sewing book, I made two pouches.

First up, I needed a small pouch to carry in my tote bag.

I have switched to carrying a tote bag instead of a cross body bag because I am carrying so much more now (knitting project, snacks for the kids, water bottles, etc) since I spend a lot of time at practices and appointments.

I needed a small pouch to keep my “stuff” in.

I let Miss Mary pick out the fabric and it turned out pretty good!

I made a mistake in cutting the size of the interfacing, so it was a bit bulky to sew.

As you can see, my left corner/zipper section is a tad wonky but perfectly usable for what I need it for.

This is using a 9 inch zipper with one inch boxed corners.

Today, I opted to practice making a knitting project bag.

I had cute yarn print fabric in my stash and I used cotton muslin for the lining.

Although the kids were in and out and distracting me, I took my time and my zipper/corner worked out much better!

This is using a 14 inch zipper and 4 inch boxed corners.

It is very cute and will be a perfect size to hold my upcoming Drea Renee Knits Shift Cowl project.

Now the bad news.

**SIGH**

I was so psyched that the zipper looked good that I totally didn’t pay attention, boxed my corners and….realized I never did the “pull through the lining” part.

So, what that means is you can see all my seams inside.

Oh well!

I will make a sock project pouch next and hopefully I will hit every step and have a perfectly imperfect pouch!

Beautiful bags. I chuckle, reading this, because while I don’t find putting zippers in clothing hard, thinking of making a bag with a zipper just stops me every time. I really should conquer that fear though. You may just be my inspiration.

I love your pouch and bag, they turned out great and I’d say zips are no longer your nemesis. Nobody would know about the seams inside the knitting project bag without looking! Looking forward to seeing the next one.

Congrats on the zippers. Maybe you can convince yourself the seams showing is a design element. I have seen knit sweaters with the seams on the outside. Apparently it is a ‘thing’. My brother showed up with one and thought he had bought a defective garment. I told him it was all the rage, but he never got comfortable wearing it.

They look lovely and no one would know if you didn’t mention it. You do so well in sewing and I have that book and have yet to make something..shame on me and hip hip hurray to you! they are both very cute!

Chalk it up to a learning experience. My first pouch, that Halloween print, certainly was one. I totally boxed the corners wrong but I’ve kept it as I really like the bold print. I even learned with my last zipper pouch that I’ve been using the zipper foot wrong; it’s made to get a close sew to the zipper but you can adjust the position some b/c of the notches.